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| - From the owners of Guu and Kinton Ramen, JaBistro is another ambitious breed of their mid-range Japanese restaurants. Unlike Guu that exhibits a cultivated rowdiness environment, JaBistro showcases a sleek, modern and sophisticated atmosphere catered to customers with higher food budgets. The interior is long and narrow with an open-counter sushi bar where customers can see the sushi chefs working their magic. I was seated on the second floor on their rooftop patio, decked out in light wood opening to the blue sky. Its minimalist design offers a space of quiet that makes you forget about the hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto.
I was first introduced to this restaurant through a series of extremely photogenic pictures of fish on my Instagram's newsfeed. When ordering, I knew I had to order their speciality, aburi (blow-torched sushi) and their wide selection of high grade sashimi. We ended up ordering the sashimi platter, gyu oshizushi and aburicious. We ordered the $50 sashimi platter instead of the $100 because we wanted to try out the other offerings on the menu.
The sashimi platter came with a good selection of fish including medium fatty tuna (chu-toro), squid (ika), salmon, amberjack (hamachi), sweet shrimp and fried shrimp tails. I have to say the quality and freshness of their fish is one that is difficult to find in Toronto's sushi scene. Every piece of fish was just the right amount of fattiness and the perfect bite size. The presentation was truly an art in itself. Instead of neatly placing it on a plain white plate, the sashimi was served on a black slate slab placed between enchanting cucumber curls and bamboo leafs. One part of the platter I did not understand was the deep fried fish hidden under the sashimi. Was it there for design or eating purposes? I took a bite into it, and turns out it was rock hard tasting stale, not crunchy like I expected.
The aburicious came with 2 ebi (shrimp), 2 saba (mackerel), 2 salmon, and 2 JaBistroll. All 8 nigiri sushi were pressed into a rectangular shape, glazed and blow-torched. The JaBistroll is the house special with real crab, sea urchin, cucumber and salmon rolled in fish roe. The aburicious was both smokey and buttery soft. The rice was also perfectly seasoned with salt and vinegar and didn't require any dips of soy sauce to bring out the flavours.
My favourite was the gyu oshizushi, pressed angus beef sushi. Since it was also blow torched, the top of the beef was lightly seared with the inside being slightly raw. This gave the beef the perfect tender texture that was balanced in flavours, and slowly melts in your mouth. The slice of jalapeño on the sushi nicely added a hint of heat.
The final bill came to be around $114.36 for two. It is pricer than most Japanese restaurants but the quality of the food is incomparable. JaBistro is unlike any Japanese restaurants I've been to even the ones in Tokyo as it hits the sweet spot between tradition and innovation with its blow-torched sushi.
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